Summer Entertainment: Shades of Ray

So after a bit of a bummer of a Saturday, I decided I needed a pick-me-up with some lighter or uplifting fare before lying down for the night.  Not thinking that Breaking Bad fit that bill, I sought to find a suitable move to rent.  I came across this little gem in the Amazon Videos On Demand and really loved it.

Now I will readily admit that some of my enjoyment of the movie is because of the actors in the movie.  Zachary Levi (from Chuck) stars in the film as the male lead and the lovely lovely Sarah Shahi (whom is most famous probably from The L-Word, or Life, but of course I love her because of her run on Season 1 of ALIAS) as the female lead.  But I think the story is a particularly compelling one regards of who the stars were, just one made more interesting do to the presence of them in the picture.

Shades of Ray is an independent film that evidently has been touring the movie festivals across the country.  The basic premise of the story is that Levi’s character, Ray, who is half-Pakistani, half-white is soon to be engaged to be married (to a white women) when his father arrives on his doorstep.  His Pakistani father (played by Brian George, who played Babu on Seinfeld) sets high standards for son and wants him to go out with a nice Pakistani girl.  Ray gets set up with Sarah Shahi’s Sana and they hit it off, thus creating that age old love triangle.

The movie really deals with Ray’s coming to grips with both sides of his ethnicity and whether he would be happier with someone more akin to his white heritage or Pakistani heritage.  There a lot of deep seeded issues that are brought up by Ray’s parents struggling marriage.  The story ends happily enough and I believe Ray makes the right choice and comes perhaps to better understand himself.

Other themes about fate and destiny are also discussed in the movie are particularly interesting to me.

Great movie on a summer’s night.

Summer Entertainment: ALIAS Season 4

Its the summer months and free time is slightly easier to come by so finally I can do some things I have been putting off and watch some different things since the television season is over.  If you know me well at all, you probably can predict many of my usual summer interests.  I won't list them here, you will just have to wait and see if I bring them up as the summer goes on.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been steaming rolling through Season 4 of ALIAS.  (Come on you had to have known ALIAS would be involved in killing time this summer.)  In the past I somewhat discounted this season as one of the weakest in its run, feeling as though perhaps the story directions for several of the characters should/could have been taken in a different direction.  It has been a few years since I actually sat down and watched this particular season from start to finish and perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoyed it so much (absence makes the heart grow fonder...and all that jazz).  I put aside my notions of how I thought the stories should go and just went for a ride.  In the coming paragraphs I will dicuss the larger story arcs that took place and what I thought really worked and didn't work so much.  As an avid fan, I tend to really dig into the show and consequently I could talk on and on about these characters, so hopefully this doesn't immediate become such an unwieldly post.  Finally before I begin into the my thoughts/analysis, if you haven't watched ALIAS yet (shame on you) definitely give the Pilot episode a watch.  It will get you hooked (almost) guaranteed.

(The one-two combo of LOST followed by ALIAS...mindblowing!)

So thematically speaking, I think most of the over-arching storylines of the season involved the characters finding their places in their loved ones lives whether this being Sydney and Vaughn reconnecting, Nadia's search for a family, Jack regaining his daughter's trust, and Sloane coming to terms with how to be a good father to Nadia.  ALIAS is at its best when it is a heavily character driven show and each event affects a character in a very personal way.  While the plot points stretched the point of believeablity at times in Season 4, finally upon viewing it this time I really was struck by the individual journeys the my favorite characters when on throughout the season.  Admist all the craziness...why would Jack believe for a second Irina would harm Sydney?...how, for all intensive purposes, does a terrorist like Sloane get to head a special ops division of the CIA?...Rimbaldi?...each episode brought something new to the table and I found myself falling in love with the gang (now in Season 4) at APO all over again.

I am just going to go through each character's story-arc and discuss what I think were some of the important stories that were told:

Nadia
Really I like to think about Season 4 as The Season of Nadia.  Though she showed up at the end of Season 3 and was around a little bit in Season 5, it really was Season 4 were Nadia was at her most interesting.  Nadia's story is always one that I have wrestled with in my mind.  For many years I have thought that they kinda made her a flimsy character...too nice and without a compelling forward-looking story.  I thought it would have been a great story to have her and Jack at odds over "killing" Irina, though that may have been too much of a parallel to Sydney and Sloane's relationship.

Anyway upon reviewing the season again, I finally was able to appreciate the inner difficulties that Nadia was going through.  She grew up as orphan in Argentina (kinda a hooligan at that) and didn't know her parents.  Suddenly at the end of Season 3 she is "rescued", and finally meets her father and subsequently joins the team as Season 4 kicks into gear.  Her main drive in all the episodes is to learn about her family and figure out her role in it.  She joins the APO team that rife with history and has to feel her way around the complicated relationships.  I particular enjoyed her interest in Irina and what she was like as a mother, having to piece together the slanted stories from Sloane, Jack and Sydney.  The build up to her finally meeting Irina at the end of the season is terrific and I think everyone is truly happy to see her connect with her mother.

Just to wrap things up with Nadia...I was really hoping that they were developing the character as something of 1a to Sydney's 1.  I think the show at this stage was kinda in need of branching out its character base so as to tell new stories for future seasons.  Now I don't know if it had to do with Mia Maestro's contract or it was just the creative direction they decided to head in, but I really missed seening a lot Nadia in Season 5.  So many interesting avenues to explore with her.  

Sydney
What to say about Season 4 Sydney.  Well, her major story was that of reuniting with Vaughn after a tumultuous Season 3 with Lauren sort of blowing up their whole relationship.  I missed out on the origins of their relationship as I did not watch Season 1 & 2 in real-time, so it was kinda nice to their relationship rebuild. (Though I am extremely jealous...I definitely have a crush on Sydney).  Other sort of large character arcs involving Rambaldi as in previous seasons, did not involve Sydney so much this time around.  I like that most of her stories were routed in her family.  Anger and frustration dealing with Sloane...love it.  Issues with SpyDaddy over "killing" her mother.  Bonding with Nadia and trying to get past her past with Sloane for Nadia's sake.

In very Harry Potter-like fashion (though I don't know which came first...this story or the Harry Potter book), we finally had the battle between "The Passenger" (Nadia) and "The Choosen One" (Sydney) over the grandest of Muller devices.  Finally we learn the origins of the symbol of Rambaldi:

With the brackets representing the two who will do battle and the circle the object that they will do great battle.


Lastly, on a vain note, Jennifer Garner/Sydney Bristow never looked better in the run of ALIAS than in Season 4, very beautiful.

Jack
Jack is one of my most favorite-ist characters ever on television.  There is just so much depth to the character and unspoken emotion.  SpyDaddy had another spectacular year.  He was at odds throughout most of the first half of the season with Sydney because he killed Irina.  For that incident really surmises the character, while he clearly loved Irina even though she betrayed him, it always was about Sydney.  Everything Jack did was ultimately because he thought it was in Syd's best interest.  Even the stuff that may hurt her at the moment, or drive her to hate him.  Jack ultimately gets some redemption when it turns out that it wasn't actually Irina that he killed, but rather her double.

All that story is well and good, but one of my favorite storylines ever on ALIAS was one from Season 4 involving Jack.  In Nightingale, Jack exposing himself to high levels of radiation in order to save Sydney from certain death.  I love how much Jack loves his daughter and is willing to do anything for her.  The subsequent episodes keep this secret from the other major characters that Jack is suffering from severe radiation sickness.  Ultimately Marshall figures everyrthing out, and eventually Sydney.  The storyline culminates in a heart-breaking episode entitled "Mirage" where Sydney finally tracks down Jack, but he is losing his faculties and thinks it is sometime in the 1980s.

This were things just get beyond amazingly good.  APO decides to recreate the old Bristow homestead from the time in the 80's with Sydney playing the alias of her mother in order to get Jack to reveal some information about his doctor that is vitally needed for treating his radiation-sickness.  The beauty of this set-up is getting to see Jack and how he was in Sydney's younger years.  From everything we have heard/seen in throughout the series and from Sydney's perspective, Jack was never around, missing all sorts things and never spending time with his daughter.  Watching Jack interact with Irina (aliased-up Sydney)...he told her about him being part of the CIA...and he wanted to get out to be around her and little Sydney....was just heart-breaking especially seeing Sydney react to this.  Jack says things about not wanting to miss Sydney's birthday again. Man oh man...I can't make it through this episode without losing it, the tears just flow.  The scene ends with Jack sitting down with young Syd and playing the piano with her...while Sydney watches.  This particular episode just makes me love Jack even more.

Vaughn
I have never really appreciated Vaughn and the integral role he played in ALIAS until seeing the final season where he is largely absent.  So much of Sydney's life involves Vaughn from her work life to her personal life.  Season 4 really is about him and her getting back to the place they were at the end of Season 2 before Syd lost two years of her life and Vaughn got married to Lauren.

One moment from the season really stands out in my mind that just sums up what a great guy Vaughn is and how much he loves Sydney.  In Welcome to Liberty Village, Sydney and him are undercover posing as a married couple and they are ask how he proposed to her.   Vaughn basically tells how he was going to and/or would propose to Sydney on the beach in Santa Barbara.  It really came of as quite romantic and just showed how much has happened to the coupling over the years.  That moment really made me think...Vaughn is the right guy for Sydney (really as he had always been, expect for those Lauren years)

Another scene related to Vaughn that I really enjoyed was where he asked Jack if could marry Sydney.  Hardcore fans of the series will remember a similar scene in the Pilot episode of ALIAS where Danny calls Jack for the same reason and really gets an earful.  (Check it out...awesome scene...epitomizes Jack)  Jack does give Vaughn his blessing which shows how much Jack has come to respect Vaughn over the years after some real animosity between the two during eariler seasons.

I guess the other main Vaughn story for the season was him following leads about the possibilty that his father was still alive.  ALIAS fans had long wondered whether Vaughn's father might reappear from the dead (he was supposedly killed by Irina...awkward!), but unfortunately things did not work out.  Vaughn was being set-up by Elena.  We did get a chance for the passion Vaughn feels for his father and the desire for him to still be alive.  Much in the same way Sydney behaved when it comes to her mother, Vaughn does somethings that are shady just at the chance to find his father.  I would have really enjoyed adding Bill Vaughn to the mix, both for Vaughn's sake and for the interesting story possibles.

Sloane
Sloaniekins as I like to call him.  A very interesting year for him.  For some inexplicable reason, the government decides he is fit to run a covert CIA-special ops unit, overlooking all the horrible things he did for two seasons deeming that all of his "humanitarian" work in Season 3 had made him trustworthy again.  We learn a lot about Sloane this season.  I particular enjoy learning that he and Emily had lost a daughter (stillborn) that still kinda haunted him.  Throughout the season we see how he tries to develop a relationship with Nadia and deal with working closely with Sydney and Dixon again.  The kinda cool thing about the Sloane story this particular season was the fact that he was drawn up as a good character, but as viewer I was always waiting for that moment where he would turn.  While he did finally go over to the dark side, it played out in a much less treacherous fashion than his previous efforts.  He in actuality was helping Jack, Syd, Nadia and company put a halt to Elena's plans to do terrible things to the world.  I am pleased that Sloane was not completely vilified and somewhat earned Nadia's love and proved Sydney's doubts to be unfounded. As we would soon learn though, in Season 5, the lure of Rambaldi would ultimately be too great.

Great Sloane episode: Another Mister Sloane...and those several that follow

Dixon and Marshall and Weiss
Some quick hitters for the fellas:  Dixon basically distrusts Sloane (with good cause) and won't let him pull the wool over his eyes again.  And a surprising love story.  Nothing but good from Dixon.

Marshall was nerdy and fun like always.  I absolutely loved the episode "Tuesday" that he goes out in the field to rescue Sydney.  A couple of my favorite scenes in the history of ALIAS occur in this heavily Marshall episode.  The first of those being where Marshall sings his Periodic Table lullaby to his son over the phone.  As a chemist that hits particularly close to the heart.  The other scene is one where Jack is coaching him how to remove someone's eye with a spock....awesomeness.

Let's face it...Weiss is generally around for a little comic relief.  While he certainly provided some of that in Season 4, his romance with Nadia was pretty sweet.  They make a very cute couple...and she calls him "Eric"...ha

Irina
Frankly any episode that SpyMommy is just that much better.  I was very disappointed by the creative decision early in the season to kill off Irina simply because I knew that the show could not let such a dynamic character fall off the canvas like that.  It was kind of cop-out that they had to use the ol' doubling technology to reason their way out of the corner they painted her in.  The great thing about Irina is that she doesn't have to have a lot of story punch to cause ripples throughout the show.  Nadia finally getting to meet her is a terrific scene, and the fact that despite all the pain she has caused for Jack and Sydney...they both still love her.  Many of the scenes that close the fourth season set up some of the interesting storylines involving her and Sloane's quest for Rambaldi that would take centerstage as the show concluded.  Without her, the SpyFamily wouldn't be complete and her return for the last couple episodes of Season 4 made them so much sweeter.

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So this took me about three weeks to write, off and on of course, so there probably wasn't a lot of flow to it, but really I hope someone gets something out of it.  Probably that person will be me someday when I comeback to read this, but that is ok.

I think I will conclude this monstrousity with a list of the must see episodes of the season:
Mirage, Tuesday, A Man of His Word, The Descent, Search and Rescue, Before the Flood

Breaking Bad...

Well while I work some some more long form posts about some of my summer entertainment...here is another short audio post that talks about the newest TV show I am am watching these days, Breaking Bad.

The short synopsis being that as a chemist I find lots of the chemistry to be very amusing, but the rest of the show is very dark and gross and kinda depressing in a way.  Brian Cranston whom I have enjoyed in the past on Seinfeld and most notably Malcolm in the Middle really gives outstanding performances show after show.  I can see why he won the Emmy for Best Actor...great stuff from him.

iPhone 3.0 Software Released today...

So the new software for the iPhone was released today (very exciting).  I took a little time earlier today to try out one of the newest features..."Voice Memos"...and I recorded some of my thoughts on the new features on the phone that I have noticed so far.



Just a little heads up that I am working on a summer series of things that are keeping me entertained.  The first thing on the docket is a little (not so much) write-up about one of my all time favs.  It is a rather involved post that should be up in a week or so I imagine.